Minnesota groups with ties to Haiti seek news as well as ways to help

Twin Cities groups that work in Haiti, struck Tuesday by a major earthquake, were scrambling to get word of their people and programs, as well as to learn what help they can offer in the coming days.

Mark Crea of Feed My Starving Children had heard from some of the main groups working with the nonprofit Christian organization based in Coon Rapids.

"It sounds like a particularly devastating blow," Crea said. "It takes but a sneeze to cause problems in Haiti."

Feed My Starving Children sent 25 million meals to Haiti last year, the most sent to any of the 64 countries where it works. The food is specially designed to help malnourished children.

Crea was in touch with people by phone and e-mail, but "so far, e-mail is working the best."

The group was working on an emergency response plan, which would be guided by the needs of its partners, he added.

"We do a lot in rural centers and hard-to-reach areas, so we'll have to wait to hear how hard they are hit," said Crea, adding that a meeting already was planned in Miami later in the month, but it will have to wait to hear if people from those groups will be able to get out.

"Minnesotans are simply the best," he said.

Jeff Gacek of Healing Haiti, based in White Bear Lake, just got back from Haiti on Saturday. When he learned of the earthquake, he was working to move up his next trip, and he plans to return Feb. 8.

His group is working to build an orphanage, Grace Village in Titanyen, Haiti, with two dormitories as well as a feeding center for street families. The foundation was set and the walls were starting to go up, Gacek said.

"We're not aware of any damage, but we're not hearing everything," Gacek said. The quake was felt in Titanyen and a house collapsed there, he added, but his contacts there were heading back to Port-au-Prince and were in transit by the time the earthquake hit.

In St. Paul, World Wide Village had heard from Tara Livesay that her family was safe, said Pat Mortensen.

Livesay lives and works in Haiti with her husband, Troy, and their seven children. The Livesays quit their jobs and sold their house in Zimmerman in 2006. Tara ran in the Twin Cities Marathon in 2009, raising tens of thousands of dollars to help malnourished children.

Troy Livesay reported on his Twitter feed that damage in the family's area of Port-au-Prince appeared mostly to be fallen exterior walls. But someone returning from the Carrefour area of the city "saw many dead bodies and injured along the way ... said most buidings w/more than one story are down."

Later Tuesday, Troy Livesay said the worst of the damage appeared to be in Carrefour, where "many two and three story buildings did not make it."

Before signing off for the night, he wrote: "The Haitian people are out praying together -- aftershock happening right now."

Updates on the family's blog spoke of numerous aftershocks, coming at one point every five minutes before lessening in severity and number, as well as tied-up phone lines.

"We are all truthfully very scared. People are suffering in collapsed buildings and until daylight we don't even know how to report more -- it got dark about an hour after the main one hit. We had not had time to go out at that point," one posting said.

"I hear helicopters flying over often and hope they are helping the hurt and trapped -- but there is not light to work with."